About two weeks ago, Lisa Bluder and her husband, Dave, went on vacation to the Phoenix area. They went for a walk. They’ve always enjoyed exploring the world together, but free time as a prominent Division I basketball coach is scarce… and so are opportunities to travel.

During that trip, they started talking more deeply, and eventually the 40-year-old college head coach – including the last 24 at the University of Iowa – came to a final conclusion.

She would leave the coaching rut behind her.

Bluder’s announcement was somehow kept under wraps until the university released it Monday around 3:30 p.m. She and Dave didn’t tell two of their three children until Sunday.

“Why now? Why not?” Bluder said Tuesday evening at the Hilton Garden Inn in West Des Moines, the site of a well-attended Polk County I-Club event. “It’s an opportunity for Dave and I to travel while we’re still healthy. My son (David Jr.) will be a senior at Grinnell College next year, and I will be watching all his games. I’ve missed so many things from my kids, and it’s time for me to give my all to them. Honestly, it’s a good time to go out.

When this opportunity came up to Bluder, she reached out to several long-time women’s coaches who had recently retired for their perspective. She announced this on Tuesday not I thought about this during Iowa’s record-breaking season, which ended in a second straight national championship game. Little did she know this would be her last season at Iowa.

As she walked to Carver-Hawkeye Arena with her daughter Hannah on Tuesday morning — yes, Bluder joked, they were still letting her into the building — mom shared a little regret.

“I said, ‘I wish I had known that Ohio State (on March 3) was our last regular-season game. And I wish I had known that West Virginia (in the second round of the NCAA tournament) was our last (home) game,” Bluder said. ‘She didn’t understand why. But to put that in your memory a little bit: I wish I had known.”

That shows that Bluder’s actions were even a bit of a surprise to herself.

“I will miss the training sessions. I won’t miss the road trips. That’s kind of grueling sometimes,” Bluder said. “But I will miss the players and the camaraderie of being part of a team…there’s nothing like that.”

Bluder is happy to know that her successor has been by her side for the past 32 years, including eight at Drake. Jan Jensen will be Iowa’s next head coach, an announcement that came 23 minutes after Bluder’s retirement bulletin on Monday.

Bluder called the 55-year-old Jensen athletic director Beth Goetz’s “perfect choice” and predicted a smooth transition.

“Her love for the University of Iowa, being an Iowa girl, is so important,” said Bluder, herself an Iowa girl who grew up in Marion and played at Northern Iowa before starting her coaching career at NAIA St. Ambrose in 1984. ‘That’s why she’s doing so well. She’s looking forward to it so much.”

As mentioned, the 63-year-old Bluder took his time with this decision. Iowa’s 87-75 loss to South Carolina in the NCAA championship game occurred on April 7. She let it marinate for five weeks. The simmering decision came to a boiling point in the Arizona heat.

The next holiday on the horizon for Lisa and Dave Bluder? Maybe Alaska. They always wanted to go there together. Dave, who was present Tuesday evening, indicated that he has done research in Alaska.

“It’s a time-consuming job,” says Lisa Bluder. (Her mood as she spoke seemed a combination of joy and relief.) “It’s nice to be able to breathe a little now and not have to jump right back into training that starts in a month.”

Bluder’s demanding, driven professional lifestyle hasn’t even given her the time to revisit some of Iowa’s biggest wins in recent years, like South Carolina in the Final Four last year or LSU in the Elite Eight this year.

With 884 wins, Bluder was No. 2 among active coaches until Monday behind UConn’s Geno Auriemma. She saved her best years for last, compiling a 65-12 record over the past two seasons. She has won four of the last six Big Ten tournaments. She took Iowa women’s basketball to a place it had never been before: the NCAA title game. Twice.

“It’s such a good feeling to take this team to the Final Four and the national championship game,” Bluder said. “I know nothing can ever replicate that. It was quite magical.”

Now that he’s retired, Bluder doesn’t want much attention. She wants to spend more time with Dave and her three children (daughter Emma is a fifth-grade teacher in West Des Moines).

She plans to say no to pretty much everything for a while. That was another piece of advice she got from a retired coach.

On Monday, she called the incoming recruits and told their parents she would sit in the stands with them at Carver-Hawkeye Arena next season and talk basketball.

Bluder was asked Tuesday night how she wanted to be remembered.

One thing she barely mentioned? The victories.

At Bluder, coaching was about relationships and being part of a close-knit team.

“I want (fans) to remember the joy this team played with, and the camaraderie,” Bluder said. “So much can be accomplished when you put aside your differences and focus on the purpose and mission. That’s what this team did. That’s what was so fun to be a part of.

“I hope people remember that. I hope we brought joy to many people and made them forget all the problems they have in their lives for a few hours on game days. But most of all I hope people remember how we played the game.”